In-Store Media Leaders Share Insights at P2PI's Storefronts

The Path to Purchase Institute's inaugural Storefronts event (think upfronts for in-store retail media) provided a thorough snapshot of the state of the quickly evolving digital in-store media sector. 

In addition to the off-the-record presentations from retailer media networks, leading solutions providers in the sector gave a glimpse into the touchpoints, trends, challenges and forecasts shaping the industry. Below are some takeaways from event sponsors: shelf-edge media provider Vestcom, and Mood Media's in-store digital advertising provider, Vibenomics.

Vibenomics: In-Store Essentials — Scale, Results and Partnerships

Paul Brenner, SVP, global retail media and partnerships, Vibenomics, invited five individuals from the company’s lineup of retailer media network partners on stage to help paint a picture of the range of and state of in-store retail media. Leaders from Dicks Media Network, CVS Media Exchange, Albertsons Media Collective, Lowe’s Media Network and Ahold Delhaize’s AD Retail Media took the stage. Some takeaways include:

• In-store retail media adoption is on the rise.
• “In-store is a tactic, either standalone or part of an omnichannel strategy,” Brenner said.
• Director of Dick’s Media, Benjamin Weisel, said Dick’s Sporting Goods’ new brick-and-mortar footprint, Dick’s House of Sport, is “everything that we think physical retail should be. Physical retail is theater, and we’re trying to bring that to light and invest in different experiences and engage all of the senses,” including sound, smell and touch. “We built incredible product trial moments throughout the store, like golf simulators, a climbing wall and a full-sized field attached for programming,” he added. “But we also want our athletes to hear the experience, whether that’s messaging from our brand partners or really authentic sounds of sport that come through the audio system and resonate with local customers. Dick's also wants to engage the sense of smell by releasing the scents of Big League Chew gum because we want shoppers to be transported to the field and feel like an athlete. There’s no better frontier for all of those things to come together than physical retail."
• “Everything old is new again,” VP of sales, AD Retail Media, Bernadette Van Osdal, said. “Now with these connected commerce solutions we have, in-store is the hot topic again and it’s really soaring. When we think about that print circular that still is alive and well and how our customers learn what’s on sale … and that infamous 18-49 [aged] customer base that oftentimes gets alluded; it’s not going away. But these commerce solutions help us enhance what we’re trying to communicate to our customers while they’re in-store.” She added, “Connected commerce is really the spine that ties the whole funnel together.” 
• “One of the most important things that [brands] need to address when planning an in-store campaign is what’s the content strategy,” Albertsons Media Collective’s principal product manager, Michael Halverson, said. “There's an opportunity for full-funnel messaging and an activation to tie everything together in-store.”
• “Digital plays a big role in the in-store experience, most shoppers searching for something in the mobile app come into stores within 48-hours,” said Pamela Young, head of sales, CMX. “There’s big opportunities to connect digital messaging in-stores.”